Within the prison setting, the horizontal slot like opening in the door or bars of a cell. This opening is large enough to fit a food tray, but small enough to keep and inmate from crawling through.

Dr. Evans, the prison psychologist, went to visit the unruly inmate in segregation. When he leaned his head down near the bean chute to talk to the agitated inmate, a self-help book came flying out of the bean chute striking Dr. Evans in the side of the head.